COSTS OF EDISON LINES DISPUTED

Members of an intergovernmental committee in southwest Lake County met Wednesday and challenged cost estimates supplied by Commonwealth Edison Co. for burying electric power lines in the area.

Meeting at the Lake Zurich fire station, committee members and residents said they do not believe estimates showing that underground electric lines will cost about $4 million more per mile than above-ground lines.

The added cost of burying the lines, said Edison officials, would have to be paid by local municipalities.

Lake Zurich Village Manager John Dixon said he believes that Edison's figures are inflated by $1 million per mile.

Douglas Challos, acting village president of Hawthorn Woods, added that he is still concerned that above-ground power lines produce electromagnetic fields that could cause certain cancers.

"If there is any doubt in my mind" about the cancer-causing potential, "what am I going to tell my residents? How could I approve this?" Challos said.

Edison is proposing a new substation in Lake Zurich to serve a five-mile radius around the town.

Communities that would be served by the substation, including Hawthorn Woods, Long Grove, Mundelein, Lake Zurich, and the townships of Ela, Fremont and Libertyville, have formed an intergovernmental committee to review Edison's plans.